UT Martin shows exhibit on lunch counter sit-ins

UT Martin shows exhibit on lunch counter sit-ins

February 5th, 2014by Associated Press in Local - Breaking News

MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin is commemorating the role Tennessee students played in shaping the modern civil rights movement with an exhibit on the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins.

In 1960, black students from Fisk University, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University (later Tennessee State University) and American Baptist Theological Seminary took over the lunch counters in Nashville's downtown to end racial segregation there. The successful nonviolent movement sparked other sit-ins across the South.

The exhibit is "We Shall Not Be Moved: The 50th Anniversary of Tennessee's Civil Rights Sit-Ins," produced by the Tennessee State Museum. It includes photographs, letters, posters and original news footage.